Teams competing in this year’s Bridgestone World Solar Challenge (BWSC) will drive on the first motorsport tyres to feature Enliten technology. Furthermore, one of the tyre specifications that Bridgestone custom designed for the 1,860-mile (3,000 km) route through Australia contains 63 per cent recycled and renewable materials.
Greenergy International Ltd. has submitted a planning application for two renewable fuel plants in Teesside, including a facility that utilises the company’s Green Tyre Technology (GTT) to produce recovered carbon black and low-carbon road and marine transport fuels from end-of-life tyres. The other facility will see Greenergy enter the Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) market, creating SAF from waste oils.
Bicycle tyres are generally beyond the Tyrepress.com remit, but we’re making an exception for a product billed as the first of its kind with a “closed-loop product cycle.” In addition to being made from 100% Fair Rubber, the Schwalbe Green Marathon contains around 50% renewable & 20% recyclable raw materials. This 20% includes all carbon black used in the tyre.
Pyrum Innovations is bringing its pyrolysis-based tyre recycling technology to the UK in partnership with SUEZ recycling and recovery UK Ltd. The two companies have entered into a one-year exclusivity agreement for a facility with three pyrolysis reactors that can process approximately 20,000 tonnes of end-of-life tyres annually. During the year SUEZ will determine the plant’s location and, with support from Pyrum, begin and finance the approval process.
Following twelve months of technology appraisals, meetings with platform developers, due diligence, and alignment of vision and fit, Australia’s Triskel Group has selected end-of-life tyre (ELT) recycling technology from UK firm Carlton Forest Group. This partnership will result in a pyrolysis plant being built in Brisbane, with a further five plants following in the next five years.
Bridgestone Corporation recently began producing oil and recovered carbon black through the pyrolysis of end-of-life tyres at a test facility in Japan. The tyre maker is operating this unit within the Bridgestone Innovation Park in Kodaira City, Tokyo as part of a joint project with Eneos Corporation.
Nokian Tyres is taking part in a research project that aims to improve the quality and yield of recycled carbon black from end-of-life tyres, with the goal of using this material more extensively in tyre and rubber products. The two-year development project is coordinated by Windspace Group A/S and co-financed by government initiative the Danish Eco-Innovation Program.
Some 18 months after establishing a partnership with Monolith, Goodyear is launching a tyre containing the pyrolysis specialist’s carbon black. Owners of electric vehicles in North America can now fit the Goodyear ElectricDrive GT, a size 235/40R19 all-season tyre. This is the first tyre to feature this type of carbon black produced by Monolith.
Scandinavian Enviro Systems has raised SEK 300 million (£23.4 million) via a directed share issue and intends to use 75% of this to acquire shares in the previously announced, Michelin-supported joint venture with Antin Infrastructure Partners and to finance the JV’s first plant. The remaining 25% will finance Enviro’s operations for at least 24 months.
A couple of weeks after Apollo Tyres unveiled car tyres containing 75% sustainable materials, JK Tyre & Industries has seen Apollo’s 75 and raised it 5. The company has produced a passenger car radial with 80% recycled and renewable materials – and says it will offer such a range “in due course.”
Bridgestone has produced a run of demonstration tyres with 75% recycled and renewable materials, including synthetic rubber made with recycled plastics and natural rubber containing hevea and guayule. The company is now jointly evaluating the tyres with vehicle manufacturers with a view to their use on the next generation of electrified SUVs and crossovers.
On 29 March, Scandinavian Enviro Systems and Antin Infrastructure Partners announced the formation of a joint venture. Michelin is supporting this JV, which it expects will “create the world’s first large-scale tyre recycling group.”
Pyrum Innovations will soon begin work on a new facility not far from its main plant in Germany. It reports that the town council in Homburg has unanimously approved the sale of a section of land to Pyrum for the purpose of setting up a new pyrolysis plant. The company hopes the planning and approval process can now “begin as soon as possible.”
Pyrum Innovations has marked an “important milestone” in the expansion of its main plant by installing the two pyrolysis reactors needed to complement the site’s existing production line with a further two. It will soon begin testing the installed components by carrying out loop checks as the first step in the cold commissioning process.
In addition to unveiling a demonstration tyre containing 90% sustainable materials, Goodyear announces it will begin selling tyres with up to 70% sustainable-material content during the course of this year. No details are available at present, but Goodyear invites “consumers interested in purchasing this tyre” to register for updates at a US market-focused site.
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